Mai Dong sat in the command compartment of the Orion II spacecraft, buckled his seat belt, and reached out to turn on the switch on the control panel.

With a series of crisp "pop" sounds, the indicator lights and screens in the command cabin lit up one by one, followed by a subtle "buzz" sound, the sleeping spacecraft slowly woke up, and each system began to self-check.

Mai Dong has never manually operated the Orion II spacecraft, and it should be said that she has never touched the Orion joystick at all.

In the entire mission team, the only professional astronauts are Lao Wang and Lao Tang, and they both control the big guy, and the other payload specialists don't have this ability - in fact, the manual control system is just a redundant backup, and the Orion spacecraft's computer stores all the programs to return to Earth.

In the past few decades, the Orion spacecraft has gone back and forth between Earth and Fire so many times that the manual control system has not been used once.

Today is the first time it has been put into service.

"Mr. Cat, I'm in place!"

Mai Dong watched the screen in front of him light up, the white English sign "ORION" slowly appeared, and colorful indicators flashed in all directions.

"Well done, little girl."

The old cat lowered his head and quickly flipped through the manual in his hand, this maintenance manual was as thick as an Oxford English-Chinese dictionary, and even its writer might not be able to memorize the entire book.

But the old cat now has to memorize the manual in his head in twenty minutes, understand it thoroughly, and teach it to Mai Dong.

It has confidence in Mai Dong, who has proven that she is a talented beautiful girl with a strong ability to learn.

is worthy of being a high-achieving student who graduated from Zhejiang University, and it is really a talent to go to the Chinese Academy of Sciences for a master's degree.

The old cat thought quickly in his heart.

"Listen Miss Mai Dong, I'm going to teach you how to complete the pre-flight check! There are seven parts and 200 steps, can you hear me clearly? The old cat asked aloud, "Repeat it when you hear it clearly." ”

"Uh-huh-hmm...... Complete the pre-flight inspection work, a total of seven parts, 200 steps. The girl's voice trembled a little, she rubbed her hands, her palms were covered with sweat, and her short black hair was soaked with sweat and stuck to the corners of her forehead.

"Don't be nervous, you can do it, you can do it! You're the smartest girl I've ever met. The old cat said, "Tang Yue, can you still hold on?" ”

"Don't worry." Tang Yue chuckled, "My life...... It's tougher than Xiaoqiang. ”

Countdown to 1,100 seconds.

The Joint Space Station operates silently in orbit, flying at a speed of three kilometers per second, and outside the capsule is the boundless darkness of the night, as it is on the far side of Mars.

But a bright spot can be seen in deep space at a distance, and it reflects sunlight, which is a satellite of Mars, Deimos, which is 23,000 kilometers above the surface of Mars.

Another moon, Phobos, is on the other side of Mars at this time, so it is not visible.

The Orion spacecraft docked with the space station, and from a distance it looked sharp and craggy, with an extremely irregular shape, like a messy bamboo raft drifting along the vast ocean.

The Joint Space Station is supposed to be the top creation of mankind and the culmination of engineering, but in the deep space 60 million kilometers away, it is like a fragile and simple shack, and in the face of the vastness and vastness of the universe, this small achievement of human civilization is really insignificant, and even a little ridiculous.

Time passes in the void and dead silence.

Countdown to 800 seconds.

“FUEL…… FUEL…… FUEL is here! Mai Dong pressed the buttons in turn, pointed to the complex pipelines on the screen, and confirmed one by one, "Next is the status of the No. 1, No. 3, No. 22, No. 23, and No. 29 valves...... Mr. Cat! Code 1202 Alarm! Code 1208 Alarm, Code 1409 Alarm! ”

"Code 1202 alarm can be ignored! Turn off the alarm! "The old cat waved his hand," Code 1208...... Code 1208 alarm, close valve 20! Code 1409 alarm can be ignored and the alarm can be turned off directly! ”

Six hundred seconds countdown.

“NAC！ NAC System Panel! The old cat flipped through one page of the maintenance manual, and his eyes swept over the two sheets of paper in an instant.

"The NAC system is on."

"Listen, you'll see two neat rows of white buttons on the control panel, start with the first row, count from left to right, press the second, fourth, seventh, ninth, eleventh, and then start in the second row and press the fourth, fifth, sixth, ninth, and tenth switches!"

"First row, second row! Fourth! Seventh! Ninth! Eleventh! ”

"Second row, fourth, fifth! Sixth! Ninth! Tenth! ”

The girl pressed and held the headphones, "Done!" ”

"What's on the screen?"

“Program Adjustment Completed.”

"Beautiful!"

Mai Dong followed the progress of the old cat, the old cat's movements were as fast as a machine gun, and her movements were as fast as a machine gun, the huge and complex Orion spaceship slowly regained its vitality in her hands, and the programs in the spaceship computer were rewritten little by little, and where Mai Dong could not see, thousands of valves, circuits, pipelines and actuators inside the spacecraft were changing, and they sent commands from the command cabin to every corner of the spaceship.

The Orion II, a passenger and cargo ship, is turning into a formidable tugboat.

Countdown to 400 seconds.

The old cat stared at the computer screen, which was rigorously calculating the trajectory of the space station and the Eagle spacecraft, which would crash into the atmosphere after six laps around Mars.

The lander is like a fish jumping out of the water, while the United Space Station is a fisherman standing on the shore with a long pocket in his hand, and they only have one chance to catch it...... When the fish reaches its highest point, it reaches out and lowers its net to intercept it.

If this opportunity is missed, the fish will fall back into the water and they will never be able to catch it again.

"Miss Mai Dong, open the data link between Orion and Kunlun Station!"

"It's open! The data link is connected! ”

"I'm rewriting flight procedures!" The old cat roared, its paws darting on the keyboard, "You help me keep an eye over there!" ”

"How do you star?"

"I'll give you a number, and you'll stare at one! See if it's on the screen! Don't go wrong! The old cat said, "The first, 112.7!" ”

“112.7！”

"The second, 202.4!"

“202.4！”

“214.1！ 235.7！ 307.5！ 314.9！ 330.8！ 341.3！ ”

“214.1！ 235.7！ 307.5！ 314.9！ 330.8！ 341.3！ ”

The old cat's face sank like water.

Mai Dong's face was solemn.

It's a crazy attempt, it's a real last stand, Jedi survival, death and resurrection, no one knows if it will work, no one knows if it will succeed, this time even the 2.477% success rate does not exist.

Countdown to two hundred seconds.

A large bright silhouette slowly stands out against the pitch-black background, an arc, like a crescent moon that obscures the sky and the sun, which is the horizon of Mars, and the sunlight behind the planet illuminates the edge and atmosphere of Mars. At the junction of light and darkness, a dazzling and brilliant light rises like a mountain, and a certain shocking and majestic power is born behind it.

The long night finally passed.

The sun rises again.

The crimson earth plains and valleys swept under the feet of the United Space Station, and Mai Dong raised her head and looked at the light ahead, her thin cheeks illuminated, and she suddenly had an illusion in her heart...... I am flying towards the sun.

Countdown to ten seconds.

The old cat's voice rang out in her headphones.

"Ten!"

"Nine!"

Mai Dong closed her eyes, everything she could do had been done, and she had nothing more to do.

"Eight!"

"Seven!"

"Six!"

The indicator light on the control panel lit up, the computer of the Orion II spacecraft began to give commands, and the turbopump of the rocket engine started!

"Five!"

A subtle vibration came from behind him, and then the vibration became more and more violent, with a loud clattering sound from the seat to the console.

"Four!"

Propellant is poured into the combustion chamber, ignition!

"Three!"

The engine's nozzle spewed out a bright, scorching flame, and at this moment its burst of light even overwhelmed the sun, and the massive Orion II spacecraft began to adjust its direction.

"Two!"

The girl clung to the seat and seat belt, and she could feel a huge thrust coming from behind her, and the increasing overload pressed her against the chair.

"One!" The old cat yelled, "Orion, go you——! ”